


4. Game Night

by meltypes



Series: McHanzo PeaPod Week 2K19 [4]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, background gencio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 01:10:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17335823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meltypes/pseuds/meltypes
Summary: Strangely enough, it started out as a thing between him and Hanzo. He and the archer met up enough times during the late hours of the night in the rec room to share booze, or stories, or to just sit in silence, that Jesse decided they might as well have fun together instead of wallowing in their own depressive thoughts when it became too much. It was around the 20th time (not that Jesse was really counting) and a few good months into the recall when he pulled out the deck of cards.





	4. Game Night

**Author's Note:**

> LATE. but im dedicated to peapod week, so here it is. also, there's an explicit section for this fic that i wrote here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17335802

Strangely enough, it started out as a thing between him and Hanzo. 

He and the archer met up enough times during the late hours of the night in the rec room to share booze, or stories, or to just sit in silence, that Jesse decided they might as well have fun together instead of wallowing in their own depressive thoughts when it became too much. It was around the 20th time (not that Jesse was really counting) and a few good months into the recall when he pulled out the deck of cards. 

“You wanna play?”

Hanzo simply raised a brow from across the couch, lowering his drink. Jesse liked him best when he was like this: sleep rumpled shirt, hair messy and falling everywhere, face smoothed out instead of harshly bunched up. It was a quiet, peaceful night, too. Their previous mission had been a success, no one came home gravely injured, and Mei had made a decadent strawberry cake to celebrate. He knew Hanzo was feeling just as relaxed as he was, if the missing dark circles and lack of hollow eyes were anything to go by. 

McCree cleared his throat. “Poker, I mean.” 

“You want to play poker during our impromptu therapy sessions?” Hanzo smirked. “Not very conducive to our progress.”

“Yeah, ‘n I’m sure the getting drunk part of this whole thing is extremely helpful,” McCree snorted. “C’mon, one game.”

Hanzo got that unsure look on his face, the one that McCree started to dub as his “bullshit honor code” expression; as if experiencing any sort of happiness or taking part in any kind of self-indulgent leisure was going to undo all of the self-redeeming he had under his belt. He made the expression around McCree enough that he could probably pick up on it from 200 feet away. Although, Jesse did find it a bit flattering he considered playing a simple round of cards with an equally terrible asshole to be any kind of fun. 

The archer tapped his beer. “It is getting late.”

_ Oh for the love of-  _

McCree decided this situation required his most persuasive tactic.

“Sounds to me like you’re scared of losing.” Jesse raised his brows. “‘S alright, I mean, you’ve probably never even won a legitimate poker game before. Bet that back then, people  _ let _ you win.” 

He knew it was dangerous to mention anything involving  _ that _ , and Hanzo’s eyes narrowed in response, his nostrils flared, he slammed his beer on the table next to them, and McCree was getting ready to get decked in the face, when- 

“Deal me in so I can make you eat those words, cowbitch.”

 

It was two weeks after that, and around the 28th time when a certain professional gamer decided to butt in. He and Hanzo were tied, almost 20 minutes into the deciding hand, and, to McCree’s utter disbelief, shamelessly flirting with each other. He reckoned that the mutual teasing and drunken banter had something to do with the lengthy round. That, and because truthfully, neither one of them wanted it to end. 

Hanzo was borderline giggling at something McCree had said about Morrison’s hairline, when a loud exclamation from behind interrupted them.

“Oh, no way! Is that poker?”

Both men froze as if they’d been caught doing something scandalous. Hanzo was the first to recover and smoothed his face into a neutral expression. 

“Hana, you should be asleep.” She walked into Jesse’s field of vision and he took in her red-rimmed eyes and slightly shaking arms. He glanced at Hanzo, whose face was already painted with concern. 

She scoffed. “Yeah, I just finished a 13 hour stream and had about 5 nano-colas, so that’s not happening in the foreseeable future.” She made her way to the couch, plopped down next to Hanzo and freed her hands from the front of her pink hoodie. “Can I play with you guys?”

Hanzo looked to Jesse, raising a brow in silent communication. Jesse shrugged. 

“Sure thing, pumpkin. Let me deal you in.”

After three rounds, she threw her cards in the air. “What the hell? Are you  _ both _ cheating?”

Hanzo chuckled. “I am not. McCree, however….”

“I ain’t cheating!” McCree lifted his prosthetic to jab a finger at Hanzo. “If anyone, it’s the goddamn ninja. I’m-”

A pile of cards slid from an opening in his metal arm and hit the free cushion between them. Hanzo bit his lip, eyes crinkled in amusement. 

“-innocent.”

Hana howled with laughter and Hanzo followed shortly after, head thrown back, exposing his neck. Jesse felt something akin to a punch in his gut at the sight and he knew he was well and truly fucked. 

“That was kind, what you did,” Hanzo remarked, after Hana had begged off to bed- but not before making both men promise to teach her how to play better. 

McCree picked up another bag of potato chips (Angie was going to kill them for letting her eat that many) and chuckled. “‘S nothing.”

Hanzo grabbed an empty can of nano-cola. “Acting more a fool than usual? Perhaps you are right, that would be nothing for you.” McCree gave him a flat look and threw a can at his face, and Hanzo caught it with a smile. “You do realize she will think you actually cheat now?”

“How do  _ you _ know I don’t actually cheat?” McCree asked, walking to the trash receptacle near the door, Hanzo at his heels. 

Hanzo snorted. “Do not insult me. I can tell a cheater apart from a genuinely talented player. Also, I have been watching you closely. Very closely” McCree knew it was supposed to come off as intimidating, but the double meaning had his heart racing. 

“So you’re saying I’m a good player,  _ and _ that you pay a lot of attention to me?” McCree smirked and dumped the trash. He placed one hand on the wall next the archer’s head and the other on his hip, leaning over Hanzo. “My, my, Mr. Shimada, you’re dropping a lot of tells.”

To McCree’s satisfaction, Hanzo’s ears turned pink. He dumped the cans in the recycle bin with a huff. “I will remember this during the next night.”

Jesse had to fight hard to make his smile reasonably sized. “I look forward to that.” 

 

He and Hanzo never had a set schedule for these things. Usually, if both men weren’t on a mission or stationed to another Watchpoint, McCree would send him a quick message, and they’d meet up, and that was that. 

That changed with the addition of Lucio and Lena. 

McCree wasn’t that drunk, and neither was Hanzo, and that made the reality of what they were doing all the more exciting. Hanzo was winning by an exceptionally large margin, getting cockier, and by his 11th winning hand, he decided to up the ante. 

“I feel you are lacking the motivation to win,” Hanzo remarked, shuffling the cards. 

To be honest, that was exactly it. It thrilled McCree to see Hanzo so unreserved and haughty, so maybe he was throwing just a little. That glint in the archer’s eye when he knew he had Jesse made him want to do something not particularly appropriate for a public area. 

“Oh? And what kinda motivation do I need?”

Hanzo’s eyes roamed over McCree’s body, and heat curled heavy in his gut. 

“Your hat.”

McCree blinked. “My what?”

“Lose the next round, and I get your hat.” Hanzo smirked. “If you win….” He tilted his head to the side, dealing the cards out and placing the deck down. “You can have whatever you like.”

The implication definitely wasn’t lost on McCree and he breathed heavily, properly determined to win this hand.

And win he did. 

He was just reaching over to the back of Hanzo’s head to pull his hair ribbon out, and maybe smash their faces together, when once again, Hana Song-

“Ah, finally! I told you guys they’d be here!”

McCree jumped back, red in the face and Hanzo coughed into his hand, looking to the side. Lucio and Lena followed behind her as Hana continued chattering and made her way to their couch. Both of the newcomers gave Hanzo and Jesse sympathetic smiles as they sat. McCree flushed harder. Hanzo was still looking to the side. 

“....and I always play to win. So, deal us in card sharks, I promised to show L and L my improved skills. Jeez, Eastwood you’re redder than a tomato, how much have you had to drink?”

McCree gave her a sad grin. “Nearly not enough.”

“What are you all doing up at this hour?” Hanzo looked at them, sounding a  _ lot _ irritated. 

“Oh, I told them that there was a secret poker society with just the three of us and they wanted in.” Hana popped a large bubble she made with her gum. “Should I have not done that?”

Hanzo’s mouth twitched. Then he blurted out a small laugh, shaking his head. He shot Jesse a lopsided smile and mouthed “later,” and picked the cards back up to reshuffle and deal. 

 

Later, sadly, came much, much later than intended. 

After that night, Lena, Lucio and Hana coerced Jesse and Hanzo to make an actual Secret Poker Society with regular weekly meetups. And of course, only after it became a ‘Secret Poker Society’, did the entirety of Overwatch want in. 

Reinhardt was the next to join. Then Fareeha. Then Brigitte. 

On what was supposed to be his and Hanzo’s 43rd nightly meetup, almost the entire agent roster- save Satya and Torbjörn- were present in the rec room. Someone had even brought actual poker chips. 

Jesse learned a lot from these game nights. He learned that Mei had the best pokerface of them all (sans himself) due to her perpetual cheery nature. Hana was also good at bluffing, but got too excited when she felt she was going to win a hand. Genji, he realized, was still shit even with his mask on. Same went for Morrison. 

And Hanzo….

He learned that Hanzo was just as frustrated with this situation as he was. 

McCree knew, rationally, that he could finish what they started that night any time. He could walk right up to Hanzo, tell him exactly what he wanted to do to him, and either get a slap in the face or wholehearted agreement. But the doubt of it all being just a game to Hanzo filled his head more than once during the day, and at night, when he stared at his phone and thought about messaging him to meet up outside of Hana’s gatherings, he felt uncharacteristically nervous. Because it wasn’t just a game to Jesse. Being alone and drunk and playing suggestive cards together was one thing, but outside of those nights, when they both had enough time to sober, Hanzo remained stoic, the BS honor code expression making a permanent appearance whenever McCree was around. And if Jesse didn’t know any better (which he did, because he had done the same thing when a small tryst with a Blackwatch or Overwatch agent became awkward), he would say that Hanzo was avoiding him. 

On the 45th night, McCree caught himself fantasizing about him- or rather, someone else did. Somebody (not saying any names, but it was Genji) was sour at the fact that they hadn’t won a single hand the last game night and suggested they change it from Poker to Uno. The younger agents had squealed with excitement at the prospect, while Hanzo and Jesse shot each other matching exasperated looks. McCree would’ve suggested taking their private poker games elsewhere, but Hana declared game night was now a team building exercise, and Winston, lover of anything involving team and building (though not so much exercise) had made it official. Plus, Hana still hadn’t returned his only deck of cards. 

“You are staring, McCree.”

McCree flinched and quickly glanced back down to the colorful cards in his hands. Uno wasn’t really a game of skill, so he allowed his attention to wander elsewhere. Elsewhere, to Jesse’s archer deprived mind, was across the table from him, trying a bit too hard to win. Hanzo had a competitive streak a mile wide, which he found utterly endearing, so it was no surprise that he let himself focus on someone a hell lot more interesting than a children’s game. He was just thinking about how competitive Hanzo would be in the sheets when Genji, who sat close to his right, let slip his little observation. 

McCree casually rearranged his cards. “Just trying to suss out the enemy.”

“Do you usually leer at them when you do so? It is no wonder Talon hates us as much as they do,” Genji snickered. 

“Shut up.” McCree noticed the plethora of cards in Genji’s hands and frowned. “The hell, you’re not even trying to win and you wanted this game!”

Genji gave him a cheeky smile. “I am here only to watch.” He blatantly slid his eyes back to Hanzo (who was currently arguing with Lena about betrayal), then back to McCree, raising a brow. 

Jesse felt his face heat up. “I dunno what you’re implying, but I feel like you deserve a punch in the head for it.”

Genji suddenly pushed his chair back and stood up, dropping his cards on the table. “Me and McCree are getting more drinks.” He gestured for McCree to stand, and Jesse sighed, pushing his own chair back and standing behind him. 

“Are you gonna form a loser’s alliance while you’re gone?” Lucio teased, causing half of the table to giggle. 

Genji placed a hand over his heart, feigning hurt. “My beautiful boyfriend, how could you say such a thing?”

“Oh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lucio widened his eyes comically. “I don’t date losers.”

Genji choked, dramatically falling backwards into McCree, and the table erupted into laughter and jeers. Jesse caught Hanzo’s eye from over Genji’s shoulder, which was pressing uncomfortably into his chest, and he raised a brow in question. Hanzo shook his head with a small smile and tapped his half-full beer in answer. McCree smiled back before he directed Genji away from the table by his shoulders, pushing him out into the hall. 

When they got to the kitchen, Genji pounced. 

He looked directly at McCree, hands on his hips. “So. What is wrong with you?”

McCree couldn’t help the bark of laughter at that question. “You’re gonna have to be more specific.”

Genji gave him a flat look. “You have a thing for my brother. He obviously likes you back. What gives?”

“That’s….none of your business.” McCree huffed. He moved to the fridge and bent to grab a bottle of water, trying to feel less awkward. “How’d you even find out?”

“It becomes my business when my brother gets wasted and sits in his room in the dark instead of meeting me for our meditation sessions. And I would have to be blind to miss how often you two look at each other. Also, Lucio told me how he and Lena found you two a month ago. ”

McCree straightened with empty hands, shutting the fridge door. He felt tired all of a sudden and looked back to Genji in exasperation. “We were drunk, Genji.”

“That is a bullshit excuse, and you know it.” Genji gave him a steely look. “You know very well that Hanzo has an annoying tendency to not allow himself anything, most especially, something like this. I thought….” He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “I thought that he had grown from this, but apparently he hasn’t. Even when we were younger, he felt that he was not worthy of- well.” Genji noticed McCree’s pained expression and stopped. “Just….talk to him.” When they got back to the rec room, Hanzo noticed McCree’s distress and took him to the side.

“Are you alright?” He murmured, hand on Jesse’s shoulder and eyes sincere. “What did he say to you?”

McCree’s heart melted, and he instantly felt better.  _ Well and truly fucked.  _ “Nothing, Han, don’t worry about it.”

To everyone’s surprise, Genji won that night by playing every single horrible card at just the right moment. And, to everyone’s disgust, he celebrated by planting a very loud, opened mouth kiss on Lucio. 

Later finally came in the form of a delicious, sensual romp in Jesse’s personal quarters. 

It seemed their luck had run out; Talon managed to ambush them on what everyone thought was going to be a quiet mission at Ecopoint Antartica. The firefight that ensued after their positions were compromised filled McCree with a fear he hadn’t felt since the Fall- mainly because Hanzo’s comm was the first to cut off. 

“Widowmaker!” The archer snarled, and Morrison yelled for everyone to drop. “I am pursuing-”

“Shimada, get your ass over here now!” Pharah ordered,  head next to McCree’s on the cold ground. She was holding her side, one of the sniper’s bullets had cut through her raptor suit. 

“I managed to injure her. She-” A pained grunt following a whistle came over the comms, then a sardonic laugh. “She has retaliated.”

“Hanzo,” McCree’s voice sounded weird even to his ears. “Hanzo, come back.”

“She- going-” 

Then silence. 

What happened after that was a blur. 

McCree didn’t even think as he got up, standing straight in the hail of bullets, eyes glowing red. Ana let out a curse behind him, and he felt a surge of energy in his bones before he lifted his gun, fired more bullets than Peacekeeper could regularly hold- and fell, darkness descending behind his eyes and the sound of rattling bones and an evil laugh reverberating in his skull. 

When he woke up, he was in his own bed, the entire team situated around his room floor playing Yahtzee. He glanced down at his chest, feeling an unfamiliar weight. Hana had returned his cards. 

“I will tell you what you can do with those dice, you son of a-”

“Whoa, Han, ‘s just a game,” McCree rasped. He sat up, wincing at the abundance of noise as everyone exclaimed and scrambled to his bed.

Hana and Mei were teary eyed and hugged his shoulders, swaying him, while everyone else watched with expressions of relief and amusement. Angela scolded them, saying he needed his rest and after the pair moved, she gripped him into a tight hug herself, threatening him thoroughly.

After the excitement had calmed and they finished their game, McCree bid them goodnight, giving everyone a conciliatory hug as they trickled out his doorway. Hanzo decided to stay behind, though it didn’t go unnoticed by Genji, who made a gagging noise and mimed choking before exiting. McCree flicked him off and shut the door, anticipation and nerves bundled in his stomach as he turned back to Hanzo. 

The archer stood near his bed, arms crossed and dark eyes focused on McCree. 

“I would like to continue our game, if you are not tired.”

McCree’s heart picked up, and he raised his brows in a show of nonchalance. “Do you now? Which game we playing?”

Hanzo gave him an unimpressed look. “You know exactly what I am talking about.” He dropped his arms and walked right up to McCree, their chests brushing. Jesse’s pulse thumped erratically and his face flushed as Hanzo lifted his hands to grip McCree’s forearms. 

He licked his lips, eyes glancing to Hanzo’s- pink, parted, his own tongue flickering out. “Hana brought me my cards back, so sure.”

“Alright, deal me in,” Hanzo breathed, chuckling. He tipped his head up and brushed his lips against McCree’s. Jesse almost gave in, the play of breath and soft lips tantalizing, but the doubts came rushing back. 

“Wait.” It took all of McCree’s strength to push him away. 

Hanzo gave him an affronted look. “What-”

“‘S not just a game to me, Hanzo.” McCree winced at how cheesy that sounded. “I mean- I really like you.” He scanned Hanzo’s face, reaching for his hand, clutching it tight. “A one night stand isn’t going to be enough for me.”

Hanzo’s brow furrowed and he squeezed McCree’s hand back, moving his other one to cup Jesse’s face. “I apologize if I gave you the impression that I- that this was ‘just a game.’ It is not.” Hanzo brushed his thumb across McCree’s cheek. “I care for you deeply.”

“Oh,” McCree said, a giddy smile growing on his face. “That’s good.”

Hanzo’s face broke out in a matching grin, and he gave him a disbelieving scoff. He crowded McCree’s space once again. “I would hope so.” 

He leant up on McCree’s shoulders, bringing his mouth to his ear. “I believe the game we were playing was strip poker?”

McCree shivered, gripped Hanzo’s hips and squeezed. “I lied. Hana ate my entire deck of cards.”

“What a shame,” Hanzo said, shaking with repressed laughter. He brushed his nose against McCree’s. “We cannot play without them.”

McCree smiled wickedly. “We could just play strip.”

“Smart man,” Hanzo said, moving his lips to mouth at his other ear. “You go first.”

 

The next game night, when they walked into the rec room holding hands and sporting matching bruises on their necks, Hana smirked from the head of the table and held her hands out, making “gimme” gestures. Everyone groaned in unison, taking bills out of their pockets and handing them over. 

“Do I want to know what this is?” Hanzo asked, eyes narrowing. 

McCree saw Genji collecting money too, and felt a pang of annoyance. “Et tu Brute?”

Genji shrugged and flashed a grin, taking a handful from Lucio. “I knew you two would come together in your own time, and decided to make some cash based on an….educated prediction.” 

McCree tightened his grip on Hanzo’s hand and shot him a conniving look. Hanzo looked at him and smirked, eyes narrowing with intent. 

They were going to regret ruining Hanzo and Jesse’s game night. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @meltypes!


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